#themeing

[mandy4ever69420]

Controversial take of the day?

i think im accidentally already getting into it with my "season 5 breakup was good writing and makes the ending of the show more meaningful" spiel but related to that i dislike when comparisons are drawn between mandy/lip breaking up and sandy/debbie breaking up to ian and mickey.

the thing about lip/mandy and sandy/debbie is they had serious incompatibility problems that reached a natural breaking point & all participants are much more able to grow as people (presumably. since we don't see sandy again 😔) outside of this relationship. no mistake these are all sad things & a loss is a loss even if it's taking you somewhere better. but they were conclusive and results of some level of internal mismatch between two people

so the reason it MEANS something so much when mickey shows up again in s7 is that their ending wasn't an End in the same way as ^^^. it was inconclusive and incomplete on both ends because it was ian just trying to burn his life down because his identity crisis got hijacked by his abusive mother. i'm enchantedddd by the fact that ian was "Lying" when he said he'd wait in s6 (because he did in fact pursue other relationships) but at the same time accidentally really did wait (as in, remained wildly emotionally unavailable on a serious level) because he didn't actually let go. also the comparison to be made here is ian confidently calling mickey his boyfriend to ned after mickey brutally attempted to reject him because it was such a Weird way to act but was also True and correct. to mickey acting like they were all good after ian attempting to brutally reject him in s5

early relationships in shameless also all follow this pattern-> karen/lip ends not because they were done or ever will be done with each other but because karen's brain damage destroys her decision making, emotional, and memory making abilities. steve /fiona ends because not because they were or could be done with each other but because jimmy fucking died and fiona never gets answers. btw the resurrection of jimmysteve is THE #1 most frustrating writing decision the only major thing i'm really inclined to call stupid as fuck. carl/bonnie ends not because they were done with each other or could move on but because bonnie was too afraid of what loving her might do to carl. because she's unreliable and possibly ~dangerous and has nothing.

the incompleteness of these really fuck with every characters ability to form real bonds later. carl does the best but then gets into almost the same deal with anne gonzalez. <- my personal favorite relationship of his. waaah. anyway what. was i fucking talking about.

anyway i don't begrudge people for hurt feelings about love songs in the key of gallagher but i think you haveeee to be willing to evaluate the story as a whole since its finish. & mickey really broke the rules of the show by being too stubborn to let ian live the same losses everyone else does. i think it's kind of immature to hold a grudge about a sad plot point that tired out okay anyway

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

The importance of place: Spooky Towers and How You Get to Them

I was just reading Foxx Nolte/Passport2Dreams’ brilliant book Boundless Realms, and found this passage at the start of Chapter 2:

“Haunted Mansions lurk deep inside theme parks, and this is as it should be...It’s crucial that we must first pass through themed areas celebrating an optimistic, golden past...before we hit the place where that optimism somehow all went wrong.”

First of all, I thought this perfectly described how well-placed both the Disneyland and Disney World mansions are, and how that goes a long way in making both of those “work”.  But then, I realized, this same principle was also applied to the Towers!

It’s no secret that the Towers of Terror are the bigger, more thrill-ride-based descendants of The Haunted Mansion. Their sheer scale makes blending them into the scenery even more difficult, though, since you can’t tuck them into the trees or hillside like a more “regular” haunted house.  Still, the designers managed to mostly preserve that idea of hiding the haunts until we’ve seen the optimism first.

While the buildings at both DCA and Hollywood Studios are visible even from outside the park, they’re carefully angled or placed behind other buildings so that none of the destroyed/haunted parts obviously show.  Florida’s is mostly visible from only the back and sides until you get into the park--and the back and sides still look like a normal hotel, with the ripped-open and burned parts restricted to the front.  DCA’s destroyed front faced the entry gates, but buildings in front of it hid most of the burn scars, leaving the slightly off-kilter sign as the only visible sign something might be amiss.

It was a significant trek through an optimistically-themed area to get to either Tower as well.  DCA made you take the walk through either a stylized retro postcard or Walt’s Los Angeles, and then through the glitz of a Hollywood set/street, before you turned the corner to find that fancy hotel that was beckoning you forward was, in fact, a haunted wreck all along.  In Florida, you first take a walk down a fancy Hollywood street before turning onto Sunset Boulevard.  While the wreckage is then visible from the second you turn onto Sunset, there’s still a sense of having to “see the optimism first”.  Sunset itself has an idealized late-WWII setting, with advertisements for war bonds and victory gardens in the food court.  Looming over this idealized “can-do” spirit, though, is an ominous reminder of how things can go terribly wrong, and how not all is good and cheery in this setting.

In the 90s-2000s, in the era that focused more on thrills while also having to deal with tighter budgets, it would have been entirely possible that Disney would forget to work the environment for maximum spooky story potential.  Heck, it might even be coincidence or luck.  But still, it’s great how it worked out, and yet another great storytelling element the Towers borrowed from their predecessor.

[lostboy-magic]

Disneyland and Walt Disneyworld

I feel a bit jealous but I don’t know who I am jealous of!

[lrnhrnndz]

🌬FIESTA DE VIDA 🎉🎂🎪Al Final...Algunos #day20 #ofmarzo #capitulo3de12 #chapter3of12 #pisces #piscesseason #BVOM #dayslate #onaFriday #happybirthday #birthdayvibes #felizcumpleañosami #makeawish #megusta #mividamifiesta #fiesta #loquequedaporvivir #migente #realmenteimportante #posttoremember #growingold #musing #thisis33 #themeing

[mandy4ever69420]

i wonder if part of what produces weird reads in shameless is just that the morals the show presents are often stuff that people just don't want to hear. like "the worst person you've ever met is still human and someone loved them" or "there is no state of being that can make you incapable of hurting others" or "addiction is almost always a manifestation of pain no matter how gross or weird it makes people act" & not being able to accept that that is the belief being presented makes people just cover their ears and say something completely incoherent on the internet

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

For a Disney ride that has to do with hauntings/death/the dead, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has an unusual lack of skeletons.

Haunted Mansion? Skeleton hanging from the ceiling, plus a corpse trying to escape a coffin.  Pirates?  Skeletons galore.  Indiana Jones?  Piles of ‘em.  Jungle Cruise isn’t haunted, but there is a pile of disembodied skulls to warn you about the cannibals.  DisneySea Tower has a mummy in an open sarcophagus, which I’m going to count as “close enough” to a skeleton.

But there isn’t one in the Twilight Zone Towers, as far as I can tell.  Lots of ghosts and ghostly figures, but no overt corpses. Weird.

[a-land-of-shadow-and-substance]

Disney fans who follow me: What approximate time period do you think Main Street is?  I know it’s “early 1900s” but can anyone narrow it down to a more specific decade?  I’m planning a theme analysis comparison between Main Street and DCA 1.0′s entrance plaza and it would be helpful to be able to say a specific decade.